This word « migrant » always ruffles me a bit, it sounds like a kind of rare bird, which flies towards more peaceful tropics (and, spiteful tongues would say, where allowances bloom). Anyway, a technical term is needed here.

Economic, political, climate, the Big Bad Migrant frightens and makes the news, that is to say, the news medias chose to give to the audience (1). However, these simple statistics would relax the fiercest : there are 511 millions of inhabitants in E.U., and 21 millions aren’t European citizens, all nationalities together (so 4% of the population !). In 2015, there were 298 000 migrants in France (2), while the total number of the population is 67 millions (so 0,44% !). So go to hell with the concept of « Great Invasion » please.

The expression « asylum seeker » bunches a broad range of migrants in complex situations, coming from E.U. or not. Obtaining asylum is a protection against the regime the migrant is fighting or escaping. A migrant can officially become a refugee, or a stateless person ; he can get subsidiary protection or constitutional asylum. In any case, this procedure is never a funny decision, and most of the time, it is a choice without return. Indeed, if the asylum is given, the migrant will never come back to his country, or not before many years. The migrant can flee for political and economical reasons (that is to say, being persecuted and dying of hunger) ; in practice, preference is given to migrants with political motifs, because, after all they are too many, there have always been waves of poor guys, and this is not the moment to feel tenderness, come on. And yet, this terrible distinction, understandable for some aspects (for example, economic migrants and political refugees don’t depend on the same legislation, but respectively on the Minister of the Interior and the 1951 Refugee Convention), allows above all a sordid triage and excludes right away and under the guise of the law thousands of people. The case of Venezuela is particularly significant : monstrous inflation, authoritarianism of Maduro, and daily delinquency pushed thousands of Venezuelan people to try their luck elsewhere, including Europe. And yet, it is very difficult for the majority to prove something else than their economical insecurity, to correlate this last with a political pressure directly applied on them, or to demonstrate with certainty that there will be reprisals if they return. Only famous opponents, with mediatized voice, such as ex-chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega, are trust or considered ; ordinary migrant has great difficulties ensuring a link between the political context and his own escape ; for sure, the linguistic and cultural gate with the receiving country doesn’t help.

No, French administration isn’t at the service of migrants. It is everything but indulgent : in 2016, upon 70 000 requests for asylum, only 1/3 was provided (3), which is far below the European average (68% of positive answer). A migrant can only apply once for asylum ; so the process isn’t unlimited nor extendible. And then, those who never complained when they have to go to the Prefecture for car papers can throw stones. No one ignores the very Spartan aspect of theses places (rooms without chairs, no air conditioning nor heating, toilets out of order), long queues long before dawn, from monday to friday, sometimes even on the road where cars pass by, lack of accessibility (no elevators or out of oder, no multilingual information panels, etc.), and the amazing bureaucratic logic (overworked staff with one office opened on four, appointments systematically at the same hour for everybody early in the morning but with a limited number of tickets, dispensed in one hour, no cases grouped by nationalities or languages for a quicker management, no interpreters, etc.)

Files are slowly, very slowly processed. Any requested document must be sent as recommended, and with an acknowledgement of receipt (5,10€ the letter, quite expensive for someone with income). Any mistake, such as delay in sending documents or an absence at an appointment (which can be also due to the non-obtention of an appointment, as said earlier, because of the very short time and the small quota of appointments given, and with non certificate to show for those who couldn’t get a meeting) jeopardizes the administrative process, and leads to sanctions (for example, the suspension of the Allowance for Asylum Seeker). In contrast, any mistake from the administration (loss of documents, typing error, documents sent to the wrong address) causes no sanction for the office, and no reparation for the migrant. If he hasn’t seen or reported the mistake, he is compromised and eventually sanctioned. In some parts of France, the reception of migrants is more than questionable : illegal confinement and eviction in Menton this summer, daily persecutions by the police in Calais, and chased away migrants during the presidential visit in Lyon this September.

In 1940, German people escaping from Nazism experienced the very same system. In Destiny’s Journey (Schicksalsreise), chronicles of his frantic flight from Wehrmacht, famous author Alfred Döblin (4) wrote :

« Perhaps the travel was interesting : we were crossing half of the town. However, our need for travel was already fulfilled. (…) We were sweating, and we started to feel tired. Some cars were driving fast next to us and overtaking us. (…) The alley was enlarged and formed a kind of place where there were a group of people, men and women simply and properly dressed. (…) Everybody was waiting … waiting for being admitted. (…). At the top of the stairs, people were moving here and there and were rested against the balustrade, staring blankly into space. (…) We have to go for this number. (…) We got a number : there were more than a dozen persons before us, and with our late arrival, who knows if we would be received today, the office being closed in the afternoon. (…) People were having discussions with unfortunate companions they didn’t meet since Paris. They were coming from different camps and they were talking about other people, who were still on the road. The general mood was gloomy : one tries here, but there is no hope. They were talking about the political situation, and these were discouraging palavers. »

–

« Marseille or the hunt for visas », 1949, homemade translation.

Almost eighty years later, in spite of Fifth Republic and computing revolution, nothing has changed and the testimony of Döblin remains sadly relevant. Internments camps for Spanish Republicans and then Harkis became detention centers and slum areas, periodically closed or destroyed, with no longterm solution (but expulsion).

No, French State doesn’t give m/billions to migrants. During the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande or now Jupiter (5), the Big Bad Migrant is and stays in the sewer. A person waiting for the asylum request doesn’t have the right to work. He/She has to wait for nine months and gets a temporary authorization for working, with the proof of a recruitment commitment or a future contract. Black labour is of course forbidden, migrant and employer can be both condemned, even in the case of small jobs (cleaning, baby-sitting).

In theory, a migrant can ask the Allowance for Asylum Seeker (ADA). This financial support (the only one) is provided for any asylum seeker aged over 18 :

if he/she applies

if he/she totally accepts the material conditions of the French Office for Immigration and Integration (OFII), for example, an obligatory accommodation

if his/her administrative situation is under review

if he/she gives the official attestation for the above-mentioned condition

if he/she can prove he/she earns less than the Active Solidarity Income (RSA, that is to say 500€/month)

Let’s take the « most expensive » example, the first case. A single Big Bad Migrant could get the ADA during nine months (we can suppose the migrant might have received after this time the decision about his asylum request, or asks for a work authorization) and without interruption, immediately after his arrival to France (which never happens, btw). So, from 270 to 279 days at 6,80€, the migrant would get between 1836 and 1897,2€. Concrete translation : for 6,80€ a day, you send a recommended letter (5,10€) and you can say goodbye to your meal and to the bus which brings you to the Prefecture.

For general guidance, the abolition of the Solidarity Tax on Wealth (ISF) costs 5 bloody billions per year, the Tax Credit for Competitiveness and Employment (CICE) 20 billions per year, and fiscal evasion between bloody 60 and bloody 80 billions per year.

In theory too, a migrant can ask for Judicial Assistance (AJ), that is to say, a lawyer. As for ADA, AJ isn’t automatically allowed, and the request takes time. Another urban legend : no, the Big Bad Migrant doesn’t dig the hole of Social Security (6), he only has access to emergency care. If he can proves the legality of his process of asylum seeker, he can ask for the Universal Protection Health (PUMa). This procedure is of course tedious ; without help (from NGO for example), PUMa remains inaccessible or even unknown to the migrant. Accommodation is also a huge problem, even with an official refugee status. Shelters are saturated ; the only options are the associative systems (such as Utopia 56, Roya Citoyenne …) and individual initiatives (Cédric Herrou). Since 2013, the L622-4 law forbids to punish humanitarian sheltering (7). In reality, it’s the L622-1 law from 1945 which predominates : 5 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 30 000€ for any French or European host. The judicial and police harassment against Cédric Herrou is the most emblematic case, but other arrests or proceedings happened : retiree Monique Pouille in Calais, Professor Pierre-Alain Mannoni in Nice, Human Rights League militant Paul Garrigues in Dijon … All over the country, hundreds of migrants sleep in the streets, including children(8), or in urgency shelters, where they have to live with marginalized populations.

The most precarious cases are the dublinised, that is to say the Big Bad Migrants who arrived illegally in E.U. and who had to let their fingerprints in Eurodac system. This system forces the migrant to do his asylum request only in the country he was controlled (so, generally in the first arriving country) ; if he travels in other countries of E.U. and gets caught, he is deported to this same country. Dublin III regulation controls at the same time the movement of the migrant, and facilitates his expulsion : most of the time, the asylum seeker is under house arrest or detained, but it doesn’t mean his procedure will be easier or quicker. If one of the rules is not respected (change of address, missing an appointment), the migrant loses his few rights (for example, the billions of ADA) and officially declared as fugitive, so illegal, so under the danger of deportation. Besides, bordering countries are logically those that register the highest number of dublinised (Greece, Spain, Austria) ; the more the number of dublinised increases in a country, the more the border policy and the asylum process will be restrictive. Once the asylum request is rejected, the dublinised migrant can’t try another process in a new country, because, as said earlier, the procedure is unique.

We live under a blindly capitalist era. The world is a big village where goods and people can circulate, and above all goods. For almost two centuries, capitalism digs with great pleasure inequalities, supports authoritarian regimes, and last but not least, disrupts the laws of Nature. Active participant of this system, the European Union appears for many people as one of the last safe places, without military conflict and yet without climate catastrophes. In a word, migration is a real phenomenon and it won’t stop, with or without closed borders. And yet, considering the current policies, it is not excluded at all that we could become Big Bad Migrants, and in a close future. Thus, exhausted and desperate, we will flee from war, hunger or climate apocalypse with wife and children, on the back of a donkey or in a pneumatic boat.

Let’s hope our neighbors will show more mercy than us.

Ndlr : the title of this article comes from the song “Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf ?“, by Frank Churchill for cartoon Three Little Pigs. The date already smells bad (1933), and the figure of the wolf is quite interesting, because he’s not only a carnivore, but above all a wanderer, without a roof and poorly dressed.

(1) In 2016, we already criticized the media coverage around violent events when the author has a non-Caucasian profile. Also, misinformation is the guilty pleasure of (neo) Fascists, and unfortunately it works quite well when they talk about migrants.

(4) Intellectual, journalist with socialist and even marxist ideas, born in a Jewish family, poor Alfred had nothing to please the Third Reich. He flees Germany and lives in Paris. In spite of his celebrity as a writer and a strong opponent against nazism, his work for the War Ministry and the enlistment of his son Wolfgang in French army,he has to move to the free zone, then Spain, before taking one of the last boat for U.S. in Lisbon. Döblin shows in his chronicles the inefficiency and the public hostility of the French administration, who dares consider him as a potential spy, and sends him to internment camps. The only assistances – who will save his life, his wife and his young son Stefan – come from associative or individual initiatives.

(5) Jupiter is the nickname for the actual French President Emmanuel Macron.

(6) The French Social Security (Sécu) is a post-war creation (and a Communist idea btw !). Taxes and contributions guarantee a free health system which takes care of the whole population, including poor and foreigners. Obviously, this assistance is great but not perfect, and the Sécu presents a deficit of billions (the French call it with a certain elegance “a hole”).

(7) According to L622-4 law, legal proceeding isn’t possible against someone who gave freely, and without any consideration, legal advices, food, accommodation or medical care, if it is in the aim to preserve dignity and physical integrity of a person in an irregular situation.

(8) The French government is perfectly aware of the situation about child migrants, and is fine with it (even right-orientated newspaper Le Point said it !). This fragility runs all over the country, not only in Paris but also in Marseille, Amiens, Toulon and Rouen.